ottawa foodies

I left on the evening of Friday, March 2nd to fly to Switzerland, arriving midday Saturday. My folks had organized a big dinner there on the way home from India to mark the occasion of my brother's marriage less than two weeks before. It was a blast but was very quick! I was back home Monday evening.

I'll share my food photos here, starting with... Bratwurst mit Pommes Frites (and onion gravy), as enjoyed in Zurich airport while waiting for my brother and his wife to arrive from Montreal via Frankfurt.

Breakfast at my aunt and uncle's house features fresh baked breads including delicious spelt loaves (my uncle mills his own flour) and the braided Zopf I mentioned in a forum topic a while ago.

Both mornings, I also enjoyed a soft boiled egg fresh from the chickens in their yard.

This is called Flädlisuppe and it's nothing more than a simple beef bouillon with a thin crepe-like omelette sliced up in it. This one is garnished with chopped parsley but often chives are used instead. Simple and delicious.

Spätzle are tiny dumplings. They are made by pushing a flour and egg based batter through a colander or other hole-filled device into salted boiling water. Once cooked, they are often pan-fried in butter to make them even better. My mom used to skip the pan-frying and serve them sprinkled with cheese and fried onions. Now that is comfort food!

The mushroom cream sauce was excellent in this pork dish.

This is a cute little mouse that the restaurant served as part of the extensive dessert table.

Supper at my aunt and uncle's house. More excellent bread with a fantastic selection of cured and sliced meats and tasty cheeses.

This is a Fasnachstkuchen... a fried pastry that is typically served as part of the Fasnacht festival (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasnacht) especially in the canton of Basel.

This was the hot lunch the Swiss airline served on the way back home -- gnocchi with geschnetzeltes beef. The fresh rolls were great with the little triangle of brie and the caramel mousse made a nice dessert.

Here's a nice serving of broccoli my uncle made. He was feeding a big crowd of about 14!

More of my uncle's great cooking... tender beef with mushroom sauce and bulgur.

One of the dessert tables at my parents' luncheon.

Now that's just cruel man!

Your pictures make me homesick of European flavours.
Swiss cheeses and meats are so good!
The Swiss Airline lunch looks better than many dishes I had in "cool" restaurants.

Food porn overload!!!!!!

It would be fun to put a picture of the Canadian airline dinners beside the Swiss air one!

You know, the Air Canada meal (on the way over) was pretty good too but I didn't take a picture because it was night time. They served orzo with chicken and an okay gravy accompanied by cauliflower and carrots. The other (vegetarian) choice was curried chick peas with rice. The dessert was a citrus mousse sprinkled with pistachios. The salad was a nice cucumber and tomato thing and there was a giant cup of raita to go with it. The roll was dry and tough though, in contrast to the Swiss one which was warm and crusty.

The other neat thing about the Toronto-Zurich-Delhi flight is that they very matter of factly offer a nice milky Masala Chai tea as a beverage. :-)

Fresh Foodie's weekend in Switzerland (wowsa!) + foodlover's musing on airline food comparisons leads to: www.airlinemeals.net/
Choose the airline then check out the food (uh, in some cases 'food') photos taken by passengers - with good comments too. The sunrise/sunset shots with the light through the tiny window casting a golden glow across the tray. Oh, take me away!
And I want to travel Singapore Airlines!! For dinner.